WPP has begun 2014 as it ended 2013 – with a series of acquisitions and investments that further strengthen the Group’s leadership in digital media and fast-growth markets. Deals to date in January include the acquisition of a majority stake in a leading Vietnamese marketing agency, the move to majority ownership of GroupM and JWT’s businesses in Russia, and GroupM’s purchase of German digital media specialist, plista. December’s nine deals included Grey taking a majority stake in Indian rural field marketing agency RC&M and Millward Brown acquiring 70% of Russia’s ARMI Marketing.

The Group has taken a 30% stake in strategic communications firm Richard Attias & Associates. Led by founder and chairman Richard Attias, the company has built an unrivalled reputation for helping governments, corporations and global leaders articulate their objectives through the creation of tailor-made programmes, conferences and summits. Events led by Attias have included the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Clinton Global Initiative, the launch of the Euro in 2000 and the 2008 Arab Strategy Forum.

Land Rover has appointed Brand Union and digital brand consultancy partner, Digit, to develop and evolve its brand identity following a six-way pitch process. The agencies will also create a set of brand guidelines for parent company Jaguar Land Rover.

Ben Phillips has been named MediaCom’s first Global Head of Mobile. He will be tasked with defining best practice across the agency as an ever-greater number of digital campaigns are expanded into mobile and ensuring that clients benefit from the latest knowledge and understanding of this increasingly important channel.

GroupM has launched a TV business unit that will improve the targeting behind TV advertising and offer clients superior engagement capabilities. The unit will be called Modi Media and will be led by Michael Bologna, GroupM’s Director of Emerging Communications.

WPP has agreed to take an 80% interest in the WVI Group of companies, the joint venture holding company for a number of WPP brands in Russia, including JWT and GroupM’s media investment management businesses. An agreement has also been reached to purchase the remaining 20% stake in 2016.

WPP is to acquire a majority stake in Marketeers Vietnam, a full-service integrated marketing agency based in Ho Chi Minh City that specialises in promotional campaigns, activation and field marketing services.

Wunderman and MEC have launched a joint venture, CHOREOGRAPH, that pulls together data from multiple sources in real time, enabling clients to construct timely and relevant communications for connected consumers.

Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific has launched K1ND, a new brand innovation unit in partnership with Singapore’s Economic Development Board, which is fostering the city’s creative industries and skills base.

GroupM has purchased plista, an online advertising specialist based in Germany which brings advertisers and publishers together via its data-driven content and advertising platform. The platform enables advertisers to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of their campaigns while allowing publishers to benefit from prolonged user visits.

Grey Healthcare Group and OptimizeRx Corporation have announced a partnership that will enable pharmaceutical and biotech companies to better support healthcare providers and patients through their electronic health records and patient portals.

GroupM has agreed to acquire a majority interest in ClickMedia, a full-service social media marketing firm in Vietnam, which provides social media strategy, campaign strategy and implementation, and crisis prevention and management services.

Maxus UK has launched a new division, Maxus Partnerships, offering brands a marketing platform focused on agency-brand collaboration and digital expertise. The new division will be led by Laura Wade, who joins from UTV’s talkSPORT and Sport Magazine where she was Head of Digital.

Cohn & Wolfe has opened a new office in Manila which will focus on technology, consumer, lifestyle and branding services. The Philippines office will be run by Amiel Mendoza, formerly of EON, who will report to Gavin Foo, Group Managing Director, Southeast Asia.

Kantar Retail has released its latest PoweRanking report, which examines the relationship between retailers and manufacturers in China. It shows that while Wal-Mart continues to be seen as the top retailer in the country, pure-play online retailers are starting to make their presence felt as they challenge the dominance of the big traditional bricks-and-mortar companies.

JWT London’s third Austerity Index has revealed that while an increasing number of people believe that Britain is now in recovery, many are still struggling with the mounting cost of living. The report shows that those on higher incomes have become more prosperous since the crash compared with middle- and low-earners, and that this polarisation has not gone unnoticed; 81% agree that austerity has deepened the social divide in Britain.

The inaugural Russian Consumer Report 2014, published by Landor Associates, has shown that Russian consumers spend more on food than they do on rent or utilities, are generally uneasy about purchasing clothes online and believe customer service in their country is worse than in the West.

Shan Hai Jin 2013, GroupM China’s most comprehensive market research on consumer behaviour in Tier 1-4 cities, has revealed that emotional drivers are an increasingly important influence on Chinese consumers’ purchasing decisions. Among the 22 product categories studied, including automobile, cosmetics and electronics, emotional factors came top as a reason to buy for more than half of the categories.

Kantar Worldpanel has released Men Revolution, a new study examining male grooming and purchasing patterns across eight Asian countries. Of those interviewed, eight in ten claimed they took care of their appearance, with 60% stating that they would do exercises, 49% willing to take vitamin supplements and 36% prepared to diet in order to improve the way they look.

Kinetic, the world’s largest out-of-home media agency, has launched a research study to gain a deeper understanding of out-of-home media in the Philippines. Employing the market research expertise of TNS, Kinetic has developed a framework that will seek to challenge as well as substantiate traditional thinking with regards to out-of-home media’s audiences, the key environments with which it engages, and its effectiveness.

Kantar Worldpanel UK has launched Thoughts On…, a new collection of insight papers which look at key issues in the consumer and retail landscape. Navigating the Customer Journey is the first in the series and examines ways in which retailers can make themselves stand out to increasingly savvy consumers.

Team Detroit has launched Technology Frontiers, its latest issue of Notes from the Observation Deck, a series of publications that look at interesting phenomena and worldwide trends. The report examines the feelings that technology elicits in people, how the technology environment is impacting consumer behaviour and the global economy, and how companies are shifting their business models toward a digital focus.

Cohn & Wolfe has appointed Ethan Kraus as Vice President, Paid and Integrated Media, Vicky Lewko as Senior Vice President, Head of Digital Health and Mischa Dunton as Managing Director of its San Francisco office.

GROUPM:

MEC

MEC has named James Northway as Head of Analytics and Insight for Global Solutions and EMEA, Jeff Hyams as Chief Digital Officer, Global Solutions and EMEA, Stuart Sullivan-Martin as Chief Strategy Officer, Global Solutions and EMEA, Andy Reynolds as Strategy Partner, Allison Coley as Client President and Mike Cuva as Managing Partner.

MEC South Africa has appointed Alistair Aitkenhas as Commercial and Operations Director and Charlie Edge as Head of Strategy, while Gonzalo Praderio Hermida has been promoted to Managing Director, MEC Uruguay.

MEDIACOM

Ben Phillips has been named MediaCom’s first Global Head of Mobile.

Vik Kathuria has been named Global Head of Digital Investment for MediaCom Worldwide.

MINDSHARE

David Pullan has been appointed as Mindshare’s New York Office Lead and Unilever Client Lead, North America.

JWT

JWT Canada has appointed Lezlie Grossman as Executive Vice President, Managing Director, and Andrew Schulze as Vice President, Integrated Broadcast, while JWT Hong Kong has named Howell Wong as Head of Digital.

XM Gravity has hired Dimas Novriandi as General Manager, Daniel Hagmeijeras as Strategic Planner, Daniel Van Leeuwen as Director of Analytics, Strategy and Media, and Deden Purnamahadias as Business Director for XM Gravity One, the company’s digital marketing unit.

KANTAR

Lightspeed Research has appointed David Shanker to the newly created role of The Americas Chief Executive Officer and promoted Daniel S Fitzgerald to Chief Client and Marketing Officer.

Ogilvy Public Relations has named April Scott as Social@Ogilvy’s Executive Vice President and Group Director, Lindsay Garrison as Senior Vice President, Brand Marketing and Kate Simpson as Account Director, Brand Marketing.

Ogilvy Public Relations has also named Mary Salvaggio as Account Director, Brand Marketing, Janet Sousa as New Business Manager and Jennifer Wayman as Managing Director, US Social Marketing.

SPAFAX

Adam Cholewa has joined Spafax as Art Director of Air Canada’s enRoute Magazine.

WPP DIGITAL

POSSIBLE has appointed Berlinda Lim as Head of Analytics, Asia Pacific.

YOUNG & RUBICAM GROUP

Y&R has promoted Veronica Fraga to Regional eXploring Director, Latin America and Saul Betmead has been named RKCR/Y&R’s new Chief Strategy Office, EMEA.

Krishnan Menon has been promoted to Chief Client Officer, Wunderman APAC, Nimesh Desai has been made Managing Director, Wunderman Southeast Asia, and Michel Mommejat has been named Managing Director, AdPeople Asia Pacific.

Debbie Hawickhorst has been named Director of Human Resources for Wunderman Brand Experience, KaI Musielak has joined Wunderman Seattle as Group Account Director and Luis Coelho has been promoted to Creative Director, Wunderman Lisbon.

George Liggett has joined Sudler & Hennessey as Chief Financial Officer for US operations.

Sébastien Debon has been named General Manager of KBM Group Paris.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

AKQA

EY, the global professional services firm, honoured AKQA Chairman Tom Bedecarré by naming him Media, Entertainment and Communications Entrepreneur of the Year 2013.

GREY GROUP

Adweek named Grey its 2013 Global Agency of the Year, emphasising the strategic and creative changes implemented by CEO Jim Heekin as key to the agency’s success.

At the Campaign Asia Agency of the Year Awards Grey Group China was named Agency of the Year for the Greater China region and also took home Gold for China Creative Agency of the Year. Grey Group Hong Kong also won a Silver at the awards in the Hong Kong Creative Agency of the Year category.

Shoot Magazine, America’s leading publication for commercial and entertainment production, named Grey New York as its Agency of the Year.

GROUPM:

MEC

At the Blue Star Awards MEC Mexico won nine honours including the prize for Most Awarded Agency, and Izabela Albrychiewicz, MEC Poland’s CEO, was named as one of the 100 most entrepreneurial women in Poland in the Kobiet Biznesu rankings.

JWT

At the Campaign Asia Agency of the Year Awards JWT was named South Asia Creative Agency of the Year, JWT Singapore was voted Southeast Asian New Business Team of the Year and also won a Silver in the Singapore Agency of the Year category, and DesignerCity was awarded Hong Kong Digital Agency of the Year.

The Campaign Asia awards also saw JWT Vietnam claim Silver in the Vietnam Agency of the Year category, JWT Beijing’s CCO Polly Chu named Greater China Creative of the Year, JWT Pakistan collect a Gold and JWT Sri Lanka win a Silver.

JWT MENA was honoured with Campaign Middle East’s prestigious Network of the Year title.

JWT Taipei was the most awarded agency at the Times Advertising Awards in Taiwan, which recognises Chinese language advertising from around the world.

JWT Cairo’s Vodafone “Fakka” campaign was awarded Contagious Magazine’s Most Contagious Retail Award in New York, together with the Audience Award for Most Contagious Idea in London.

At the Global Media Cristal Awards JWT Dubai won a Grand Prix, a Gold and a Silver, JWT Cairo won two Golds and a Silver, and JWT Riyadh won two Silvers.

JWT Singapore won a Silver at the Lia Awards and eleven medals at the Creative Circle Awards.

At the LongXi Awards International JWT Beijing won three Silvers and at the Taiwan Ad Festival JWT Taipei Managing Director Evan Teng was named Ad Man of the Year.

KANTAR

TNS UK was named Best Agency (turnover above £20million) at the MRS Awards 2013.

OGILVY & MATHER

Ogilvy & Mather took the Campaign Asia Agency of the Year Awards by storm, winning over twenty gongs including Creative Agency of the Year and Digital Agency of the Year.

SPAFAX

Spafax won three Golds at the 2013 Eddie & Ozzie Awards.

YOUNG & RUBICAM GROUP

Y&R Asia had its most successful showing ever at Campaign Asia’s Agency Network of the Year Awards, winning a total of eight gongs. Among the winners was Marcus Rebeschini, Y&R Asia’s Chief Creative Officer, who was named Asia Pacific Creative of the Year.

Y&R had an outstanding evening at the Epica awards with a total of 28 wins across 17 agencies, which included Advantage Y&R Namibia winning the Press Grand Prix for its work for Land Rover Defender.

Y&R Singapore won nine Gongs at the Creative Circle Awards, NMNI won Gold at the Eurobest awards and RKCR/Y&R took home four Silvers at the British Arrow Craft Awards in London.

Futurecom Zurich won a Silver in the Lifestyle category at the Best of Swiss Apps Awards and Wunderman Prague took home two Silver Effies in the Small Budget category.

At the Cristal Festival Blast Radius Paris won a Cristal Award and two Sapphire Awards, Kassius Paris won a Cristal Award and an Emerald Award and Wunderman Paris won a Sapphire Award.

VML New York in partnership with Y&R won a Silver at the Internationalist Awards for Innovative Digital Marketing and Native VML was honoured by Creative Circle with the December Ad of the Month Award in the out-of-home category for “The Exchange”, an ad produced for the Organ Foundation.

Wunderman won Best Company for Innovation & Leadership at the annual IAIR Global Awards, Blast Radius Paris claimed Gold at the Epica Awards 2013 for its “Converse Get Loud” campaign, and Wunderman Portugal won the Grand Prix and two Golds at the 2013 Effectiveness Awards.

At the Yahoo! Big Idea Chair Awards 2013 AGENDA Hong Kong won the Best Advertising Agency award and three Yahoo! Hong Kong Grand Award 5-Year Awards. The agency also won two Golds and two Silvers at Marketing Magazine’s Marketing Excellence Awards 2013, two Silvers at the W³ Awards and a Gold at the ROI Digital Awards 2013.